This is the 17-year-old boy who saw his efforts to have a crucial debate on lowering the voting age filibustered by Conservative councillors.

George Richmond, a Balcarras School pupil from Chedworth and a member of the Youth Parliament, had persuaded the county’s Liberal Democrat leader Paul Hodgkinson to table a motion at today’s full Gloucestershire County Council meeting to discuss the pros and cons of bringing the voting age down to 16.

George called for the debate on behalf of the young people he represents, many of whom feel frustrated at having a lack of democratic voice before they turn 18.

But he saw his hopes of a debate dashed at Shire Hall today as more than half of the two-hour slot allocated for debating motions was taken up with mainly Tory members taking turns to praise flood relief efforts.

George Richmond, who called for a Shire Hall debate on the voting age

Liberal Democrat members in the council chamber accused their Conservative counterparts of showing 'hideous contempt' by 'talking out' the motions but the Tories claimed getting through the six different motions on the table in the time allowed was always going to be impossible.

George, who suffers with scoliosis, said: "It's very disappointing and quite damaging for the Conservative Party to try and deny that debate for young people.

"It's showing the young people of this county that they aren't prepared to take them seriously."

She said: "This council has got 17 per cent women councillors - the rest of you are men.

"You are mostly men and you have talked out and we cannot debate a motion about women's pensions. I want you to reflect on what that looks like to the people out there because it's chauvinistic and it's disgraceful."